Webb Miller 'still there'

Dowagiac area journalist an eyewitness to history.

February 16, 2011

DOWAGIAC -- "Webb Miller Is There."

At least, the story of Miller, the Dowagiac-area journalist who was an eyewitness to the world's most significant events in the early 20th century, was front and center at Monday night's meeting of the Southwestern Michigan College board of trustees.

Two SMC officials were on hand to discuss their article on Miller, titled "Webb Miller Is There,'' that appears in the January-February issue of Michigan History magazine.

Steve Arseneau, director of the SMC Museum, and Scott Topping, dean of academics and studies, recounted the story of Miller, the premier war correspondent for the United Press who covered everything from the Pancho Villa insurrection to the guillotine execution of a French serial killer. His latter account of the 26-second event won him a Pulitzer Prize.

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"His story is an amazing one, which he detailed in his 1936 autobiography 'I Found No Peace,''' Arseneau said.

Miller interviewed the likes of Mohandas Gandhi, who became a friend of Miller and who later credited Miller's reports with helping turn world opinion against the British occupation of India. Miller also was aboard the Hindenburg on its inaugural trans-Atlantic flight and he was one of just three American journalists to attend the wedding of Edward VIII and Wallis Warfield Simpson.

In the early days of World War II, he interviewed Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. Shortly afterward, he died mysteriously in a London subway, at age 49.

The college's museum acquired Miller's press passes, photos, letters and personal artifacts from Miller's family in 2007 and includes them in a display in its exhibit "Small Town, Big World: Locals Who Made History." Others in the exhibit include Ed Lowe, the inventor of Kitty Litter, and Iven Kincheloe, arguably the country's first man in space.

Also at Monday night's session, the board authorized the release of bid specifications for exterior improvements to the center of SMC's Dowagiac campus. Bids will be opened March 14.